Mikako, our over-zealous heroine, has a sister-complex so strong she won't let just any man wed her sister. On an undercover investigation to learn more about the newest bachelor, she ends up moving in with him! Plus the guy is a highschool kid just like her! Mikako's relationship with him starts to grow. What'll happen between Mikako and him?!
(Source: Tokyopop)
Volume 4 contains the one-shot "Smiling Revolution", the mangaka's debut story.
Story:: 7.25/10 ---------------- For what seemed like a typical shoujo setup, the story was pretty good for the most part. Instead of being a completely vanilla "girl meets boy and falls in love" type of scenario, there's a bit of a unique spin on the relationship. Female lead falls in love with the boy(male lead) that her older sister was suppose to "meet with marriage intent" (an "omiai"). The sister then falls in love with another character, kicks out our female protagonist from their home which causes her to live with the male protagonist for the duration of the manga. Add in some implications here and there,a little romance, comedy, drama, and that sums up the plot. Putting that aside, the story itself is pretty entertaining. The atmosphere of the story is very shoujo-like with a healthy amount of comedy and romance mixed in. The drama however, seemed a bit melodramatic which caused me to make the "are you serious?" face a few times. As for the pacing of the story, it was done decently, nothing seemed too rush although there were a few filler chapters- while entertaining, were still filler.
Art:: 6.5/10
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MAL states the manga started getting published circa 2000 to whenever, so considering the time period, the art is pretty good. The characters perfectly match the shoujo atmosphere in design and detail. They were distinct enough for me to not confuse them with each other and simple, yet appealing enough to not take anything away from the manga. The focus is obviously on the characters but the details for the backgrounds were also drawn well. I'm not a big fan of this time period in manga (pointy chins, sharp hairs, etc) but if it didn't distract me, it should be fine for most folks.
Characters:: 7/10
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Very typical characters. With the cohabitation/romance theme in place, our characters don't deviate much from that standard. The female lead (Mikako) shows off the typical airhead-ish and innocent personality with the typical "am I getting in the way", "am I good enough for him", et cetera phases that's been done to death by all shoujo romance heroines. The male lead (Ro) is no different. He's the cool, dependable, at times secretive, constantly teasing yet trying his hardest to hold back his libido (rolls eyes) type of guy. It should be noted, that they are of two different ages so that made for some fun interactions. As for the supporting characters, they all had a good amount of screen time but didn't do much with it per se. Outside of the older sister having a "development", the rest were filler-ish. Screen time for "love rivals" were introduced and wrapped up fairly quickly so there's that. As for the "villains" of the series, they were pretty much nonsensical but had moderately enjoyable plots.
Enjoyment/Overall:: 7/10
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Putting aside the "drama", the other elements of the story worked pretty well together. The most enjoyable component was definitely the comedy-based character interactions. The romance? I've seen better but at least Missile Happy! didn't make it too cringe-worthy. Despite the random insert points of the filler chapters, I felt entertained as I finished each chapter. There would be no problem making this a part of my recommendations list (this doesn't exist fyi) for the shoujo lovers out there. Probably not re-read worthy, but good enough for that 1-2 day session.
